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Expired Portable Pinstadium alternative

Expired Due to no activity
Wayne J

Wayne J

Registered
10 Years
Joined
Jul 22, 2011
Messages
2,964
Location
Walsall
Having seen pinstadiums installed in a ST:TNG at Electric Circus I was impressed with how well they lit the playfield allowing for the ball to be tracked much easier. It's no surprise that it is one of the most played machines there.

The 4 major downsides were:
1) The price at anywhere between $260 and $400,
2) The fact that they had to be installed inside the machine, thus making moving them from machine to machine a pain,
3) That to lift the playfield you had to remove them, and
4) The 'rainbow stripes' they cast on the metal ramps.

So I set about trying to build something that would
1) Do the job of lighting the playfield evenly to assist in streaming, as well as helping track the ball,
2) Be easily moved from machine to machine, without the need to access inside the machine, and
3) Be lightweight and portable so they could be used in an arcade, bar or competition where the lighting isn't perfect, thus replacing people using a LED headlamp.

After a month, and numerous failed attempts I'm pretty happy with what I've produced.

They are magnetic and attach to the siderails/glass guide. The battery pack is also magnetic and attaches to the back box hinges. They are finished in black 3D carbon wrap, and are almost unnoticeable while on the machine.
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Although originally designed to be completely portable and battery powered, they could quite easily be powered by a 12v plug.

If you wish to buy a pair they will be priced at £75 per pair - plus postage. PM me if you are interested.

UPDATE
Postage
Mainland UK £5
Europe £10
USA £20
 
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Some examples of their effectiveness
 

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Wayne had these to show us at weekend.
Very impressed and a great price.
I will be having a set when I get my games room back up and running.
 
Have you thought about installing a defuser strip over the LEDs? I have some plastic that I use on bubbler jukeboxes and it stops the 'dot' effect from the LEDs. It is not that expensive, but I have no idea on home much it costs. May have a bit left if you wanted to experiment but will have to go thru some of my things as I have moved workshop a few months ago.

I hate a lot of thing about the pinstadium lighting - the cost is absolutely a rip off in my opinion. I can not see anyone loosing at £75 a set, but I would have a power supply option as well, or even make some adaptor looms you could run out the back of the backbox to feed the lights.

Another option is run it using 5v strip. On a new stern Spike 2 you can feed it directly off the USB ports, and on dot matrix games, via a small rectifier board on the GI.
 
Pick Holder said:
Have you thought about installing a defuser strip over the LEDs? I have some plastic that I use on bubbler jukeboxes and it stops the 'dot' effect from the LEDs. It is not that expensive, but I have no idea on home much it costs. May have a bit left if you wanted to experiment but will have to go thru some of my things as I have moved workshop a few months ago.

I hate a lot of thing about the pinstadium lighting - the cost is absolutely a rip off in my opinion. I can not see anyone loosing at £75 a set, but I would have a power supply option as well, or even make some adaptor looms you could run out the back of the backbox to feed the lights.

Another option is run it using 5v strip. On a new stern Spike 2 you can feed it directly off the USB ports, and on dot matrix games, via a small rectifier board on the GI.
Click to expand...
Thanks Phil.
I thought of pretty much all of these, and even tried some.
I used greaseproof paper as a diffuser, it reduced the dots somewhat, but was almost impossible to stick to anything - I suppose the clue is in the name. 😁
I also tried roughing up the plastic over the LEDs themselves, but that had a limited effect.
I looked at adding a splitter cable and power supply as well, also connectors for fitting to the machine power supply, all of which added not insignificant costs - and also took away from the portable nature I was aiming for.
 
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BigIan said:
These look really good, what sort of battery life do you seem to get ?
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Thanks Ian,
Not certain yet, the prototype I've been working on has had the same set of 'part-used' (harvested from a single use sterile medical device) batteries in for about 12hrs and still going strong.
I made a similar set a while back powering a UV strip (over 3m in length) to light a black light picture I have and they lasted over 48hrs after I left them on by mistake. They didn't just stop working but rather started to lose power gradually, so you'll know when to change them.
I'll supply a full set (16) of the part-used batteries with every set I sell as there is a near inexhaustible supply at work. However I don't think I'll be able to send them via airmail, but I'll check on that.
 
Mednec said:
Can you also supply the 12v plug(s)?
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I don't particularly want to, as the packaging I have already bought will not fit the plug in, but could do it at a premium.

To do the plug along with a bespoke splitter cable (as all of the splitter cables I can find to buy are not suitable) I'd charge an extra £20.
 
There'll be a slight delay in anyone ordering these as I've sold out!
I've got orders on for all the parts required and hope to be back in operation and able to send out by early next week.
 
I've had my deliveries, and over the last few nights made up another 10 sets of the light blades. Which can be sent out immediately.
Alternatively I'll be bring sets along to Tilt on Monday night, Flipout on the 30th and the Xmas Cracker (if there's any left by then). I'm now able to include a harness so that you can power both blades from a single 12v power supply.

I'm not going to make outlandish claims, but suffice it to say that my scores have improved significantly while playing with them, both on my machines and other peoples machines - read into that what you like.
 
kevlar said:
I'm waiting for the Neil Mcrae version ;)

Sorry....
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Neil has already commented on the TiltForum that they are not needed and that anybody who uses improved lighting needs their eyes testing and shouldn't be driving.
Obviously doesn't understand the working of the human eye
 
Wayne J said:
Neil has already commented on the TiltForum that they are not needed and that anybody who uses improved lighting needs their eyes testing and shouldn't be driving.
Obviously doesn't understand the working of the human eye
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so as well as homemade degrees in psychology you are now an ophthalmologist also.

Here is what I actually said. Despite all the degrees in medical science Wayne struggles with basic reading and comprehension:

Why not just sort out the ambient lightning rather than ramming a load of LEDs into the game?

Agree with @gammagoat on Albert’s lamp at Pinburgh - I was shot in the eye a few times by it. I don’t have great eyesight either but with glasses 20/20 if you need a lamp at an event like Pinburgh then I strongly suggest getting your eyes tested
And please don’t drive!"
Click to expand...

So Wayne, where you at pinburgh? Do you know how dark or bright it was there?

I went on to say:
I’ve never found a time where I need any additional lighting for playing, if you need this I state again I think you need to get your eyes tested.
Click to expand...

But of course I know nothing about eyes, if only I knew someone who was working with eye specialists on virtual reality as an eye test aid. Who the **** might be doing that?

One in five drivers admit to poor eyesight. New research has uncovered the worrying eyesight of Britain's drivers. More than a fifth (21 percent) say road signs appear blurry when driving. The research, by specialist eye hospital group Optegra, also revealed that 27 percent find it hard to see when driving at night.
Click to expand...

so yeah if you can't see in a well lit place like Pinburgh, get your ****ing eyes tested.
 
Do you not agree that in all mammals that the pupil dilates in darker light conditions to allow more light to hit the retina, and that in bright conditions the pupil contracts ( or more accurately the iris expands) allowing less light to hit the retina?

On a machine in poorly lit areas, the contrast between bright areas and dark areas means the pupil can't react quickly enough when tracking moving ball to give optimum performance.

By increasing the light across the whole of the playfield, it therefore removes that differing contrast and allows the ball to be more easily tracked.

The effect is magnified with even the best camera for streaming, the initial reason for the lights.

At no point did I ever bring up Pinburgh, that was you, so I have no idea why you are asking if I was at Pinburgh. Ps if you need the answer because you can't remember that long ago - I wasn't.

I have no idea what I have done to upset you so much, but this has been going on for far too long and you obviously have issues. I would kindly ask that you don't try and derail this for sale thread with more personal attacks aimed at me.
FYVM BIFF.
 
****ing hell you are even thicker than I thought humanly possible:

Here is what you wrote in post #22

Neil has already commented on the TiltForum that they are not needed and that anybody who uses improved lighting needs their eyes testing and shouldn't be driving.
Obviously doesn't understand the working of the human eye
Click to expand...

Which 1: isn't what I said and 2: I then say what I did say because you seem to think that you know what the light was at Pinburgh when you actually were not at Pinburgh (obvs!), so how could you know what the lighting was like to give a view if people would need to have their eyes tested or not?

You want me to stay of your threads? stop saying things I didn't say.
 
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